Findings suggest that psychotherapy termination may at times be required to facilitate the pursuit of personally meaningful goals.

Although the termination stage of psychotherapy is known to evoke powerful feelings, it has rarely been the subject of systematic investigation, and its relation to other aspects of therapy has not been evaluated. In the present study, we explored clients' feelings during termination of psychodynamically oriented psychotherapy and examined how these feelings are related to satisfaction with psychotherapy. Eighty-four persons who had been seen in private-practice psychodynamically oriented psychotherapy were assessed using open-ended questions and rating scales focusing on their feelings during termination. Results of the current study indicate that clients experience a wide range of feelings, many positive, during the termination phase of therapy. Factors that contributed to positive feelings were the experience of termination as a practice of independence, a reflection of positive aspects of the therapeutic relationship, and positive gains experienced in therapy. Loss of a meaningful relationship was the most frequently mentioned factor contributing to negative feelings during termination. Longer treatment was related positively to positive feelings toward termination and satisfaction with termination. The importance of incorporating the positive feelings about termination into the ending phase of therapy and its management are discussed.

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Deborah was referred to me for psychoanalytic psychotherapy following a suicide attempt and depression. We began a fascinating journey spanning more than 10 years. During therapy, many questions arose concerning the suicidal episode, which she could not register consciously. I tried to understand the reasons for her depression and the attempted suicide through the unconscious process in the therapeutic relationship and through the music and poetry that she brought to sessions. In this paper I describe the process of listening for the signifiers of semiotic and symbolic language, both metaphoric and metonymic, as revealed in poetry and music according to the theories of Kristeva and Lacan. The poetry enabled the patient to retrieve childhood memories, experience the movement from unconscious to conscious, and mourn through the experience of transference and countertransference in the therapeutic relationship. Also illustrated is the transition from singing the music to more symbolic language, turning the patient's sensory experience into language, and connecting her personal experience with the culture of her past. The patient's mourning and the lost love objects are discussed through the prism of classical and object relations theories.